Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Interview @ XP4T

PsychoSyd of XP4T had the chance to interview Warhorse Studios, and ask a few questions of a few different employees. Here is a short sample of the interview.

XP4T: How did you come up with the idea of making an open-world RPG set in medieval times? And why not an adventure game or an RTS?

J.R.: There are two guys behind the idea – Martin Klima and Dan Vavra, game developers with strong RPG background. Have you heard about Original War, Vision (not released) or Mafia? Mafia is definitely well known around the world, and Martin is also co-creator of the best-selling pen&paper RPG in Czech Republic named Dragons Lair. You can see now, that the common project had to be an RPG ;-]

XP4T: What are your feelings about the Kickstarter campaign? Did it give you something more, apart from the financial aspect and some kind of morale boost?

J.R.: First of all we have got loud and clear YES from 35k backers on Kickstarter for a project, which was „not appealing enough“ to many publishers. And thanks to them we are still here working on Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Thank you all once again!

XP4T: You call the game a “realistic open world game”. How would you define that “realism”? Does it only pertain to the combat mechanics, or could we consider the game a source of some interesting knowledge about the Middle Ages?

J.R.: We have a special department for research! They read through all the stuff from libraries and chronicles, look up the documentation and pictures and also visit real places from the game to shoot there. Of course the game can’t be completely realistic or you would spend whole time in the forge making hoes ;-] We also cooperate with the best fencers and bow masters in Czech Republic to gain the knowledge about the 15th century combat techniques. They are very helpful!

P4T: How much fantasy will be there in Deliverance? How solid is the factual basis for Deliverance’s story and setting?

J.R.: No fantasy at all, there are no dragons or spells! The main story is based on the historical events described in chronicles and other resources, but life of a smith Henry is of course made up by Dan and team of designers. You don’t find story of poor peasants in chronicles usually. But it doesn’t mean it is not interesting, you can live through very important times of Holy Roman Empire!